The invention is generally related to electronic data storage devices, and more particularly to system event processing. Software components and hardware subsystems may be configured to generate event notifications. Examples of events include, but are not limited to, operational status changes and errors, system configuration changes and statistics updates. The utility of an event notification may depend on the technical knowledge of the user who receives the notification. For example, error codes may be useful for IT personnel, but have no meaning to the average user. This can be problematic in complex, multi-vendor systems which are utilized by multiple users via a network.